by Duncan Lay
“What?” Dina exclaimed.
Fallon smiled grimly. “Even better, the Kottermani Prince whispered to Swane that he wanted his agents to meet with the Prince’s men tomorrow. There must be something he is after and we can use that to get at him. Especially as the King has decided the Kottermanis are the real threat. He told us we are free to come and go as we wish.”
“Can we trust that we are not being watched?” Padraig asked.
“Not entirely. But if we are careful, we can do what we wish.”
“How do you mean?” Dina asked.
Fallon pointed to Devlin and Gallagher. “Can you describe the house where you saw the Kottermanis meet with Swane’s agents?”
Gallagher grunted. “Yes, but we don’t want to go near it. It will be watched. It is an obvious trap.”
“I wasn’t thinking of going there,” Fallon said, unable to keep a smile off his face. “Instead I am going to give Prince Kemal a message myself, saying the house is being watched and instead to come to the townhouse of the Duchess Dina. And there we shall strike. Once we have him, we shall force him to return our families.”
He sat back and waited for their reaction.
“What if he doesn’t agree to give them back? He didn’t strike me as the sort of man who will back down quickly,” Dina asked.
“I will make him,” Fallon promised. Inside, all the frustration, the fear and the anger of the past moons were surging to a peak. If he could but get his hands on that Prince Kemal, they would all be returned.
“And what then? It doesn’t change what is going on between Gaelland and the Kottermanis,” Dina argued.
“Ah, but we have—” Brendan began, only for Fallon to kick him under the table. He needed Dina’s help but he did not want her to know about their plan to sail away to Cavan’s island. She thought they would aid her grab for power, and he reckoned she needed that incentive to help.
“Once we have their Prince, the Kottermanis will be forced to negotiate,” Fallon said. “And part of the deal could be a change of ruler for Gaelland, to someone better suited.” He nodded to Dina. “And, of course, we would make the return of the Duke of Lunster, your husband, part of any deal.”
Dina said nothing for a long time, then she nodded. “Yes, I can see how that could work,” she said quietly.
“So you will stand with us?” Fallon pressed.
“Of course,” she assured him.
He flicked a glance across to Rosaleen, who nodded fractionally.
“But Fallon, why are you sending them the message? Wouldn’t it be safer to send someone else?” Gallagher asked.
“Prince Kemal knows me now; he met me with Cavan and thinks I am trusted. If we are to trick him, we have to do it this way,” Fallon insisted. Besides, I want another chance to meet this Prince. There is something between us, something I do not like.
“Then this is how we shall do it,” he said, slapping his hand on the table.
*
“And what did the Gaelish King say?” Feray asked.
Kemal smiled lazily. “He looked as though he had swallowed a wasp! But he has no option but to agree to everything. He cannot stand against us and he must know that, for all his arrogance.”
“I still think it is a risk, threatening a man like that. From all I have read on him, and everything you say, he is not a rational man. He has been pushed into a corner and could do anything to get out. Men like that are truly dangerous because they do not care who or what they hurt. Do you think he cares how many of his people he sacrifices to preserve himself? Look at the insane bargain he negotiated with you last time!”
Kemal tugged at his beard, before realizing what he was doing and stopping. “That reminds me,” he said absently. “Ali and his men have not made contact with us. Abbas must find out what is going on with them. I wanted them to report in detail what they have been doing at King Aidan’s bidding. The story of Fallon freeing the streets from darkness. I hope that does not refer to Ali and his men. Or Aidan will have more to answer for.”
“My love, please listen to me. I have a bad feeling about this place. It stinks, and not just of unwashed Gaelish. There is something rotten here – I don’t think your father knows what he is getting by trying to bring Gaelland into the empire.”
He shook his head. “It does not matter what you or I think. My father has decreed it, so shall it be. And Aidan will do his best to slip out of the bargain he has made but he will find it impossible to move with us inside his castle.”
To his surprise, she did not take that as the end of the discussion and looked ready to keep arguing, except there was a knock on the door. He gestured towards the curtain that covered the stern window and she darted there, vanishing from sight in an instant.
“Enter,” he commanded.
One of his guard captains hurried in and bowed low.
“Highness, there is a Gaelish man here. He says his name is Captain Fallon and he has a message for your ears only. He refuses to speak to anyone else.”
Kemal was instantly intrigued, on several levels. “Is he armed?”
“With a sword and some sort of strange staff.”
Kemal nodded absently, his mind racing. “Bring him in, but make sure he has given up all his weapons. And have two of your best men escort him in, ones who speak no Gaelish.”
“Your will, highness.” The captain bowed and hurried away.
“Is this the Fallon you were telling me about?” Feray asked.
“Indeed. And now he comes with a message. Presumably it is from his Prince Cavan. Perhaps he warns us of the King’s intention. In any case, it should be fascinating,” Kemal said with relish.
He only had a short wait before a pair of hulking warriors escorted Fallon in.
If Fallon were worried by the armed men on either side of him, he was not showing it. Instead he looked straight at Kemal, his face devoid of emotion.
“He merely has a scroll, which he refuses to give to anyone but yourself, highness,” one of the guards rumbled.
Kemal nodded his understanding and then switched to Gaelish. “Welcome, Captain Fallon, to my ship. What brings you here?” he asked pleasantly.
“I bring a message from Prince Cavan. He could trust nobody else. The former meeting place is watched and the King’s eyes are everywhere. Prince Cavan’s words will explain all,” Fallon said, holding out the scroll in his left hand.
“Bring it to me,” Kemal ordered one of his guards in Kottermani.
He kept an eye on Fallon as the guardsman took the scroll but Fallon did not move a muscle. Once he had it in his hands, Kemal broke the wax seal and read swiftly. The words merely echoed what Fallon had already said, begged forgiveness for changing things but pleaded for the Prince to come in person to the house of the Duchess Dina, who would not be suspected by the King.
“Why does he ask for me in person? All this time, we have only exchanged words through agents,” Kemal said, tapping the scroll into his free hand.
“The stakes are much higher now,” Fallon said. “Prince Cavan wants to speak to you himself. He does not want any confusion or any chance of misunderstanding. If his words speak directly into your ears and yours into his, then he can be sure you are in agreement.”
“Why has he not spoken to us before now?” Kemal demanded.
Fallon smiled briefly. “King Aidan is not a foolish man, for all his shouting and screaming. He misses little and he has plans you want to hear. Plans that would identify Prince Cavan as a traitor if they were ever read by the King’s men, so he cannot risk writing anything. Plans that only Prince Cavan can fully reveal to you, for he is the only one the King has told. That is why I am here now. He dare not trust anyone else. And I hardly need remind you of the stakes involved.”
Kemal believed the words but he knew what Feray would be thinking, and he had her voice in his head, saying that he should not take any risks.
“You must know something though. If you really are as trusted as the Ki
ng says,” he challenged.
Fallon nodded. “I don’t know how he plans to do this but the King has already asked me to kill your men.”
“What?” Kemal snarled, coming out of his seat.
Instantly his guards, neither of whom spoke Gaelish, drew their swords and pointed them at Fallon’s throat.
“Stand down!” Kemal told them irritably and the guards reluctantly sheathed their blades. “Why you?” he asked Fallon.
At this, Fallon smiled a little and shrugged. “In truth, my Lord Prince, I do not know. One day I was a mere village sergeant and now the King wants me to lead his soldiers.”
“How would you go about defeating my men?” Kemal demanded.
Fallon chuckled. “My Lord Prince, I do not know yet. I have not seen them in action and I fear the bows they use, which I have not seen before.”
“You are right to fear them,” Kemal said with satisfaction.
“But there are thousands of us and your men have to eat, and sleep,” Fallon went on.
Kemal was about to reply angrily when he saw the truth in those words. “So your Prince has an answer to this?”
“He does. If you are willing to hear it from his lips.”
Kemal could almost hear his wife’s voice from behind the curtains, warning him not to accept this. “Why can the Prince Cavan not come here?”
Fallon smiled. “The King’s men watch this ship all the time. I can slip through the crowds unseen; he cannot. For him to turn up here would be as good as saying he intends to betray his father. And how would that help both your causes?”
Kemal acknowledged the point but he still had to convince his wife. “How will we find this house?”
“I can guide you there,” Fallon offered.
Kemal gestured to the two big guards. “And you know they will be either side of you, ready to take action if you play us false?”
“I would expect nothing else,” Fallon said. “Bring as many guards as you feel comfortable with. The Duchess’s house is large indeed.”
“And what if I was to order you taken below, where my men would make sure you told the truth?”
“Torture me? You would not discover anything new and you would lose the chance to have the Prince as an ally,” Fallon said evenly.
Kemal stroked his beard to make it look like he was considering things but, in truth, he had made his decision already. “Then it is agreed. I shall bring a company of guards.”
“Perhaps a few less might be better, if we are to avoid the attention of the King’s men,” Fallon suggested.
Kemal nodded agreement. “Before you go, Fallon, which village were you from?” he asked.
“Baltimore, my Lord Prince.”
Again Kemal made a show of pretending to think. “Did I not hear of some disasters befalling that part of Gaelland? Something about being attacked by strange creatures – called selkies or something? Was your family safe?”
For the first time he saw a reaction from Fallon.
“The families were all taken from that village, including my wife,” he said, his voice rough where before it had been smooth.
“That must be terrible. You must be devastated,” Kemal said, watching the man’s face carefully.
“Prince Cavan has promised to do whatever it takes to get our families back,” Fallon said.
Kemal nodded. “So your loyalty is tied to a promise to see your wife again?”
“It is. I would do anything for that day,” Fallon said, his voice throbbing with intensity.
Kemal smiled gently. “That is good to know. My men will return you to the docks. I shall see you tomorrow and we shall meet your master then.”
Fallon bowed and left, escorted out by the guards. Again, the door had not even closed before Feray was out.
“You should take the man below and put him to the knives, to make sure this is not a trap,” she said.
Kemal shook his head. “The man is right. Were I to do that, then I will have lost the Prince and the best hope of this new province of ours coming peacefully into the empire. Fallon is right – King Aidan will do something foolish. Cavan is a reasonable man and the people love him: all our agents say that is so. With him on the throne, Gaelland will submit peacefully. We should have dealt with him from the start, rather than striking that ridiculous bargain with the King. No, I have to do this. Besides, Fallon will be beside me tomorrow. If it is a trap, he knows he will die first.”
Feray sighed. “I hope you are right. But why did you have to tease the man like that? You know where his wife is; you have spoken with her many times.”
Kemal grinned. “I wanted to see if he was the man Bridgit said he was. I don’t think so. That man would have already sailed for Kotterman.”
“And died hopelessly. While this one is beloved by both the King and the Crown Prince.”
Kemal walked over to embrace his wife. “If anything happened to you, I would move the moon and all the stars to get you back again. Besides, I learned a valuable thing. If we want him to betray his people, we have but to offer him Bridgit. You heard him, he would do anything to get her back.”
Feray shivered. “Do not talk of such things,” she said. “It makes me feel as if a ghost has walked over my grave.”
“That is the Gaelish weather giving you the shivers,” he said with a laugh. “Come, let me warm you up.”
The door was unlocked and he took a moment to fix that. He did not worry about his men but his children were another matter.
*
“He has our families,” Fallon declared.
“Are you sure? Did he actually say that?” Devlin demanded.
“He didn’t admit anything. But there was something about the way he acted. As if he knew a secret joke about me,” Fallon said. “It was all I could do not to punch the bastard and choke the truth out of him.”
“What did he say?” Devlin asked.
“He was rabbiting on about selkies,” Fallon said. “But I could tell he was holding something back. It was almost as if he knew Bridgit. Maybe he was even the one to sack Baltimore.”
“Bastard,” Gallagher said.
“And he had his wife there. He hid her behind a curtain but I could see two cups on the table, and every time I said something, the curtain shivered. He must think we are fools.”
“But is he going for our trap?” Dina asked.
“He swallowed it easily enough. We guessed right. I gave him a little bit of truth and he gobbled it up, like a fish with the bait.”
“Obviously he didn’t try to get some more out of you with a pair of hot irons then,” Brendan said.
“He threatened it, but I talked him out of it easily enough. I’ll lead him right into the trap. Once we have him, we’ll take him to the old Moneylenders’ Guildhouse. We won’t be disturbed there and if he starts screaming, there’ll be nobody to hear him.”
CHAPTER 15
“We have a few problems,” Ahearn reported.
“Only a few? Then things are improving,” Bridgit said drily, deftly grabbing young Will as he tried to run off and getting him to sit down in front of them.
Ahearn leaned down and patted Will absentmindedly on the head. “Sean and Seamus are long gone, but their cousins, the two big ones from Killarney, are causing trouble.”
“How? They are slaves, for Aroaril’s sake!”
“I hear things from other gangs of slaves. They are muttering about escape and how they will be the leaders once the chains are gone. Not only are they going to be a handful if we do get out but it can only be a matter of time before the guards overhear them.”
Bridgit was about to swear, then she remembered Will was sitting there with them.
“I’ll have to find a way to go and talk to them,” she said heavily. “I owe them for what happened to their cousins. And they are the biggest men we have here. They will be invaluable in an escape.”
“They might be more trouble than they are worth,” Ahearn said warningly. “Maybe it would
be better to have a word with Gokmen and see them staked out as well. What they are saying about you is not pretty. They blame you for what happened to their cousins and they want revenge.”
“I can understand why they hate me. But they must see that destroying our chances of escape only hurts them. I will give them a chance first,” she said. “But if they are risking all our lives, I will sacrifice them to Gokmen.”
Ahearn looked doubtful. “I respect you, Bridgit, but I fear you are letting your guilt cloud your judgment. They are a pair of right bastards and we’d be better off without them.”
She shook her head. “I have to give them a chance. Please, trust me on this.”
He smiled. “I can’t stop now!”
*
The big cousins did not have any children in the house nor indeed family in Kotterman. Bridgit reflected it would be a foolish woman indeed who married a large drunk who liked to use his fists. Of course, if they were rich or even good providers then she knew it could be another matter entirely but their laziness ensured they lacked even that attraction. But, like all the Gaelish, they were brought to the house and given a turn of the hourglass there. The last time they had spent it sleeping and stealing food but this time Bridgit was watching for them.
“What do you want?” Blaine, the shorter and fatter of the two demanded.
“A word with you,” Bridgit said firmly.
“You’ve got some nerve, woman!” Carrick, the taller one, spat. “You had Sean and Seamus killed. Do you know what it was like, having to see them slowly die out in the sun? They could not even scream by the end. Why would we want to talk to you?”
“Because your lives depend on it,” she said flatly.
“Are you threatening us?” Blaine growled.
“No, just showing you the truth,” she said simply. “Do you want to return home or be a slave here for the rest of your life?”
They glowered at her but did not answer.
“I think I know which one it is,” she said. “But, if you talk too much, they will know what we are about to do. At least one of the guards on your gang speaks Gaelish.”